Cultural Heritage in the European Union


Book Description

Cultural Heritage in the European Union provides a critical analysis of the laws and policies which address cultural heritage throughout Europe, considering them in light of the current challenges faced by the Union. The volume examines the matrix of organisational and regulatory frameworks concerned with cultural heritage both in the Union and its Members States, as well as their interaction, cross-fertilisation, and possible overlaps. It brings together experts in their respective fields, including not only legal, but also cultural economists, heritage professionals, government representatives, and historians. The diverse backgrounds of the authors offer a cross-disciplinary approach and a variety of views which allows an in-depth scrutinisation of the latest developments pertaining to cultural heritage in Europe.




Cultural Sustainable Tourism


Book Description

This book includes research papers submitted to and presented during the first international conference on Cultural Sustainable Tourism (CST) that was held in Thessaloniki, Greece in November of 2017. Discussing complex relations between Culture, tourism, and the role of planners and architects in their maintenance, this conference was jointly organized by IEREK –International Experts for Research Enrichment and Knowledge Exchange- and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The conference was an attempt to shed a light on the significance of Culture and Heritage as two important factors attracting tourists and promoting economic growth and convey civilizations through tourism. Themes covered in this book give an overview on current research and topics of discussion that focus on Cultural sustainable tourism through several sections. The first section, titled “Art, Architecture and Culture”, discusses urban regeneration as a road to the preservation of cultural and tourist destinations and the importance of understanding and benefitting from our heritage to allow for modern day improvements. “Heritage Tourism”, the section 2 of the book, is more focused on offering nontraditional solutions and management plans to sustain cultural tourism and improve quality of life around historically significant areas. The third section on the “City and Rural Tourism” follows by providing sustainable strategies to attract tourists and promoting the use of existing resources. The last and final section with the title of “Sustainable Tourism, Development and Environmental Management” maneuvers around the different yet common environmental issues existing today and proposes new and innovative solutions for their elimination. Presenting a wide range of topics in chapters, this book provides the scientific community with a collection of unique and enlightening literature.




Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union


Book Description

Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union: The European Heritage Label provides an interdisciplinary examination of the ways in which European cultural heritage is created, communicated, and governed via the new European Heritage Label scheme. Drawing on ethnographic field research conducted across ten countries at sites that have been awarded with the European Heritage Label, the authors of the book approach heritage as an entangled social, spatial, temporal, discursive, narrative, performative, and embodied process. Recognising that heritage is inherently political and used by diverse actors as a tool for re-imagining communities, identities, and borders, and for generating notions of inclusion and exclusion in Europe, the book also considers the idea of Europe itself as a narrative. Chapters tackle issues such as multilevel governance of heritage; geopolitics of border-crossings and border-making; participation and non-participation; and embodiment and affective experience of heritage. Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union advances heritage studies with an interdisciplinary approach that utilises and combines theories and conceptualizations from critical geopolitics, political studies, EU and European studies, cultural policy research, and cultural studies. As such, the volume will be of interest to scholars and students engaged in the study of heritage, politics, belonging, the EU, ideas, and narratives of Europe.




The Cultural Politics of Europe


Book Description

Culture is one of the most complex and contested fields of European integration. This book analyzes EU cultural politics since their emergence in the 1980s with a particular focus on the European Capital of Culture program, the flagship of EU cultural policy. It discusses both the central as well as local levels and contextualizes EU policies with programmes of other European organisations, such as the Council of Europe. By asking what "Europe" actually means for European cultural policy, the book goes beyond the confines of official organizations and the political sphere, to discuss the contribution, impact and appropriation among a more diverse group of actors and participants, such as transnational experts, local bureaucrats, cultural managers, urban dwellers and the visitors. Its principal aim is to debunk the myth of Brussels as the centre of cultural Europeanization. Instead, it argues that European cultural policy has to be seen as a relational, multi-directional movement, involving a wide variety of stakeholders and leading to conflicts and collaborations at various levels. This book combines the perspectives of political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians, at the intersection between EU, urban, and cultural studies, and changes our understanding of ‘Europeanization’ by opening up new empirical and conceptual avenues. Challenging the dominant interpretation of European cultural policies, The Cultural Politics of Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of European studies, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, historians and cultural studies.




Becoming Europeans


Book Description

In this significant intervention into the academic and institutional debate on European cultural identity, Monica Sassatelli examines the identity-building intentions and effects of the European Capital of Culture programme, and also looks at the work of the Council of Europe and the recent European Landscape Convention.




Culture and Audiovisual


Book Description

Europe's cultural and creative sectors are key contributors to the economy, employment and social cohesion. This publication is a part of a series that explains what the EU does in different policy areas, why the EU is involved and what the results are.




Competences for democratic culture


Book Description

A new Council of Europe reference framework of competences for democratic culture! Contemporary societies within Europe face many challenges, including declining levels of voter turnout in elections, increased distrust of politicians, high levels of hate crime, intolerance and prejudice towards minority ethnic and religious groups, and increasing levels of support for violent extremism. These challenges threaten the legitimacy of democratic institutions and peaceful co-existence within Europe. Formal education is a vital tool that can be used to tackle these challenges. Appropriate educational input and practices can boost democratic engagement, reduce intolerance and prejudice, and decrease support for violent extremism. However, to achieve these goals, educationists need a clear understanding of the democratic competences that should be targeted by the curriculum. This book presents a new conceptual model of the competences which citizens require to participate in democratic culture and live peacefully together with others in culturally diverse societies. The model is the product of intensive work over a two-year period, and has been strongly endorsed in an international consultation with leading educational experts. The book describes the competence model in detail, together with the methods used to develop it. The model provides a robust conceptual foundation for the future development of curricula, pedagogies and assessments in democratic citizenship and human rights education. Its application will enable educational systems to be harnessed effectively for the preparation of students for life as engaged and tolerant democratic citizens. The book forms the first component of a new Council of Europe reference framework of competences for democratic culture. It is vital reading for all educational policy makers and practitioners who work in the fields of education for democratic citizenship, human rights education and intercultural education.




Cutural Routes management: from theory to practice


Book Description

In 1987, the Santiago de Compostela Declaration laid the foundations for the first Council of Europe Cultural Route, highlighting the importance of our rich, colourful and diverse European identities. Today, the Council of Europe Enlarged Partial Agreement (EPA) on Cultural Routes oversees 29 routes connecting culture and heritage across Europe. Cultural Routes are powerful tools for promoting and preserving these shared and diverse cultural identities. They are a model for grass-roots cultural co-operation, providing important lessons about identity and citizenship through a participative experience of culture. From the European Route of Megalithic Culture with its monuments built as long as 6 000 years ago, to the ATRIUM route of Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes, the routes contain elements of our past which help us to understand the present and to approach the future with confidence. The Cultural Routes also stimulate thematic cultural tourism in lesserknown parts of the continent, helping to develop economic and social stability in Europe. This first ever step-by-step guide to the design and management of Council of Europe Cultural Routes will be an essential reference for route managers, project developers, students and researchers in cultural tourism and related subjects. It addresses aspects ranging from the Council of Europe’s conventions to co-creation, fund-raising and governance, and it explores a Cultural Route model that has evolved into an exemplary system for sustainable, transnational co-operation and that has proved to be a successful road map for socio-economic development, cultural heritage promotion and intergenerational communication. The Council of Europe EPA on Cultural Routes is the result of our successful co-operation with the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture and the European Union. Increasingly, other organisations, such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization, are joining this project. This handbook was funded by the third European Commission/Council of Europe Joint Programme on Cultural Routes.




Culture and Sustainability in European Cities


Book Description

European cities are contributing to the development of a more sustainable urban system that is capable of coping with economic crises, ecological challenges and social disparities in different nation-states and regions throughout Europe. This book reveals in a pluralistic way how European cities are generating new approaches to their sustainable development, and the special contribution of culture to these processes. It addresses both a deficit of attention to small and medium-sized cities in the framework of European sustainable development, and an underestimation of the role of culture, artistic expression and creativity for integrated development of the city as a prerequisite to urban sustainability. On the basis of a broad collection of case studies throughout Europe, representing a variety of regionally specific cultural models of sustainable development, the book investigates how participative culture, community arts, and more generally, creativity of civic imagination are conducive to the goal of a sustainable future of small and medium-sized cities. This is an essential volume for researchers and postgraduate students in urban studies, cultural studies, cultural geography and urban sociology as well as for policymakers and practitioners wanting to understand the specificity of European cities as hubs of innovation, creativity and artistic industriousness.




The European Union and Culture


Book Description

The European Union and culture explains why and how the European Union has started to intervene in the cultural policy sector - understood here as the public policies aimed at supporting and regulating the arts and cultural industries. It is the first comprehensive and theoretically informed account of the Communitarisation process of the cultural policy sector. Before 1992, no legal basis for EU intervention in the field of culture appeared in the Treaties. Member states were, in any case, reluctant to share their competences in a policy sector considered to be an area of national sovereignty. In such circumstances, how was the Communitarisation of the policy sector ever possible? Who were the policy actors that played a role in this process? What were their motives? And why were certain actors more influential than others? This book will be of great use to all researchers and students of European integration and European public policy.